Six months before he was born, Conor McDonald’s father, Steven McDonald, a New York City police officer, was shot three times by a 15-year-old, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without a ventilator. The elder McDonald spent the next 30 years as a respirator-dependent quadriplegic and a constant reminder to his only child of the dangers New York City police officers face every day. This, however, did not stop Conor from joining the very department in which his father served. Beginnings The story begins in 1984, when Steven graduated from the NYPD’s academy. A year later, he married Patti Ann Norris and the couple rented a one-bedroom apartment in her hometown of Malverne, Long Island. Both came from large, Catholic-Irish families and planned to create one of their own. In April, the plan was in motion, with their first child due in January 1987. All that …